By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
HBO President Ross Greenburg disputed a claim by Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s adviser last week that there have been no negotiations for a proposed Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight.
Leonard Ellerbe released a statement last Tuesday that said, "Here are the facts. Al Haymon (Mayweather manager), Richard Schaefer (Golden Boy CEO) and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or (Top Rank chairman) Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."

Greenburg said in a statement on Monday that he has been negotiating since the day after Mayweather scored an impressive 12th-round TKO victory May 1 against Sugar Shane Mosley in Las Vegas.

"Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because of these fighters' ability to connect with sports fans around the world. It's unfortunate that it won't happen in 2010," Greenburg's statement read. "I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2, carefully trying to put the fight together.

"Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it."

Schaefer, who is promoting this weekend's pay-per-view lightweight title rematch in Las Vegas between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz, stood by his word, saying it was strange to hear Greenburg's statement.

"I have had no negotiations as it relates to this (Mayweather-Pacquiao) fight," he said. "I don't understand who Ross said they were negotiating with. They certainly have not been negotiating with me, I can tell you that."

Ellerbe, reached by phone, said, "This whole thing has gotten blown way out of proportion. I stand behind my statement 100%. Floyd Mayweather made it clear to everyone what his intentions were. He came up with a statement on June 2, and made it very clear what his intentions were. How can you have a negotiation when the principal himself says he's not even thinking about boxing at this particular time?"

"The guy who has a lot of answering to do is Mr. Schaefer. There's no excuse for that. You may equivocate, you may lie in your business, but you don't lie to the press. And that's what he did. And there was absolutely no reason for him to do that. He should have remained silent.

"And then to compound things, Oscar (De La Hoya), who went into detail about the negotiations four weeks ago, now says, 'well, I didn't mean it, there were no negotiations.' There's a particular sadness to all of this, that a guy like Mayweather can make people do these ridiculous things.

"It's so unnecessary. We tried to negotiate. I didn't put blame on anybody. As a matter of fact, I threw out lifelines giving reasons why (Mayweather) couldn't do the fight. Or he could've just said 'Hey, I had a fight in May and I don't want to fight until next year.' No problem.

this is not happening cause floyd does not want to fight, not because of some unresolved stipulation in the contract.

how can you blame pac for this fight not happening if floyd is not interested in it in the first place?

floyd had enough patience 6month ago with pacs and arums antics, and on top of that arum thinks he can set a deadline, and force him to "fight".
no my friend, **** arum and pac, especially pac for being a puppet of a fat bastard like arum.
and a big F U C K YOU to the two espn journalists, who are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.

edit: have fun beating another weight drained fighter, i wont watch the fight.
its just disgusting what flop rank leader arum is doing to his own fighters, weight drain them for his cash cow queen pacquiao.

floyd had enough patience 6month ago with pacs and arums antics, and on top of that arum thinks he can set a deadline, and force him to "fight".
no my friend, **** arum and pac, especially pac for being a puppet of a fat bastard like arum.
and a big F U C K YOU to the two espn journalists, who are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.

What patience. More like a cowardice. If Floyd want this fight, he would found a way to make it happen.. Floyd does not want the fight that is why he and his camps makes excuses to avoid it. ESPN were accurate when they called a COWARD. Floyd Maywethered Pacquiao just like he did on Margarito and Cotto.

Didn't Ellerbe also say that floyd never injected anything into his hands?

Floyd has a history of avoiding the biggest challenges from 140lbs & up. We wont go into that but in short, Tszyu, Cotto, Marg, Wright.

- Mayweather apparently comes out of retirement for legacy? for his fans?
- Mayweather says Pacquiao is easy work. 1 dimensional.
- Mayweather says Pacquiao is too small for him.
- Mayweather says Pacquiao never calls him out, that he's not his own boss, that he always says talk to my promoter when he's asked if he wants to fight Floyd.
- Floyd gave Marquez & Hatton the fight because 'they called me out'
- Pacquiao has called out Floyd. They have not yet fought.
- Mayweather announces his fight with Marquez the day of Pacquiao Hatton.
- Claims Marquez is lb4lb #3 to justify the fight even though Marquez is going up 2 divisions. Floyd also cheats Juan of 2lbs for this fight.
- Floyd on espn says legacy doenst pay bills, that he fights for money. says mosley isnt a ppv attraction. has 5 losses, etc.
- Floyd demands unprecedent drug testing on pacquiao knowing pacquiao has too much pride to be bullied (also the validity of these tests can be argued both ways ((urine vs blood, cycle time, etc)))
- Floyd Sr says he doesnt want and his son will never fight pacquiao.
- Fight doesnt happen.
- Takes an unfortunate earthquake for floyd-shane to happen.
- Now, the world wants to see the biggest fight in who knows how long. A fight for legacy. A fight for money. A fight for history. A fight for the WORLD. A fight that will be the highest grossing in the history of boxing. A fight that will give Floyd his biggest payday ever. By far the most glory of his career. One that has been demanded by the world for almost a year now.
- They were 10 days away on testing the last time.
- Now in his own words Floyd doesnt want the fight?
- His team exposed for lying about the existence of negotiations.
- Floyd rags Shane for his toothache and vacation, now he wants one?
- He doesnt want the one of biggest fights in any era?
- Floyd is insecure, he flaunts his money, always talks about, boasts it, etc. Thats the sign of an insecure individual. He cannot live without his 0. It's what he uses to promote himself. - He will not risk losing it.
- Pacquiao does have a chance at doing that, he knows it, hence the unprecedented blood testing. Pac is inside Floyds head and how can he not be given his performances?